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Retailers face the challenge Never were the horns of a dilemma so pointy, so poignant and so damned profitable. The folks who stand in the crosshairs of the shotgun wedding between economy and environment were grappling a few weeks back with the big question that plagues us all: How the heck are we going to reform our shop-and-consume culture before we completely exhaust our global resource bank account? (Because unlike human governments, Mother Nature does not offer bailouts.) The folks in the crosshairs are, of course, our retailers – the people whose vested interest is primarily in selling stuff, the more the better. Retail BC’s 2009 Passion for Retail event focused entirely on sustainability and how it is shifting the game of shopping. Retail BC CEO Mark Startup framed the dilemma succinctly: “How can the retail industry, which has built its success by selling more, be successful in a time when consumers are wearing as a badge of identity that they will be buying less?”
Another participant found the dilemma more personal. “I sell pretty things to women who don’t need them,” she lamented. “And I’m trying to figure out how to sleep at night.” No kidding. The stats about stuff are nightmarish. • People today see more advertisements in one year than people saw in a lifetime 50 years ago. • Average Americans now consume twice as much as they did 50 years ago, and produces double the garbage as 30 years ago; • In the past three decades, one-third of the planet’s resources have been consumed. • Every five minutes, two million plastic beverage bottles are thrown out in the U.S. More worrisome than consumption is the cultural embeddedness of shopping. Shopping with the primary purpose of improving one’s mood, for example, is something virtually unheard of two generations ago. Sustainability advocate Jonathan Porritt comments that we live in a society “trained to desire.” And of course, there was that shining moment when, in the wake of terrorist attacks, former president George W. Bush sought to inspire and comfort his people by urging them to go shopping. All of this means Retail BC and its members deserve kudos for trying to tackle this subject. (They even eschewed material speaker gifts, providing thank-you donations to charities instead – a nice low-consumption touch.) And of course, there were no silver bullet answers. But speakers from Mountain Equipment Co-op, London Drugs, Lululemon, Pharmasave and other retailers offered the following points of advice: 1. The recession may shift people toward a new sense of thrift. Smart retailers will know how to add value with more conscientious shoppers. 2. Energy costs will go up. Carbon will carry a price, and the cost of waste disposal will rise – the core costs of retailing are in flux (mostly upward). 3. Customers are seeking meaning and a story from their products. They’re asking, Is this good for me? How do you know? Can you prove it? If you can’t answer, they won’t be back. 4. Smart retailers have to get curious and start to learn about everything they sell. It’s not enough to green your retail operations – it’s time to question the value of the products themselves. Can you succeed for the long term if you sell food products that make children obese? 5. New social norms will cause change. Just as smoking has gone from acceptable to not, one day, items like recreational air travel may fall from favour. Disposable water bottles are already on their way. 6. Cradle to cradle is critical. Designing products so they can eventually be remade into new items is ideal, but it’s still more concept than reality. 7. Despite uncertainties, change is coming. If retailers are complacent, they will go the way of the dinosaurs. Despite interesting examples and helpful advice, the hard truth is that this dilemma’s horns offer little wiggle room. Encouraging people to buy less and make things last runs counter to what most have preached and practised for decades. Those who are going to find the opportunities in a slower, saner economy will need to think fast, deliver real value and build strong loyalty with repeat customers. Let’s hope that customers reward the ones who make the effort. They’ll need all the ethical, organic, energy-efficient, eco-friendly sales they can get. • Nina Winham (
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) is principal of New Climate Strategies. www.newclimate.ca Business in Vancouver May 26-June 1, 2009; issue 1022 |
